Tyrant/Raids/Imperial Purger
Organization With only 9,000 Health and a long time limit of 48 Hours, Imperial Purger is a very easy raid to organize. On the other hand, it has arguably the hardest battles of any raid--Enclave Flagship, Tartarus Swarm, and Siege on Kor may have comparably ridiculously overpowered cards, but at least they are far more predictable than Imperial Purger. Enemy Deck For more detail on the Card Pool: Imperial Purger (Deck) GDR 5000 The enemy commander has 25 Health, Heal Imperial 1, Rally 1, and Strike 1, following the usual pattern of two-and-a-half commanders taped together. Together these abilities will seriously put a dent in your first-turn advantage--for example, GDR Infantry could do up to 6 damage on the defender's second turn! Heal and Weaken commanders will help you hold out until you can gain an advantage. GDR Core The most dramatic threat is the GDR Core, a Strike All 4 non-Wall structure. Needless to say, activation of this structure means a virtually guaranteed loss. You have 6 turns to wear down its 10 Health before this happens. Cannon Walker is the best fast card for this due to its Siege and high Health. The only upside is that the Core will deal 10 damage to the enemy Commander upon its destruction. Armor The defender is very heavy in Armor, between the specialty cards of GDR Infantry and GDR Battle Armor, as well as other Imperial units such as Fortifier and Terminator. Pierce is the natural counter to this, particularly a Fortifier of your own and Havoc. Strike support will also help, especially durable Strike All cards such as Bolide Walker (which also doubles as Siege). Flurry The defender is very heavy on Flurry as well, again with GDR Infantry and Fortifier, as well as Ion Strykers and Heavy Gunner. The key to defeating Flurry is to reduce the incoming damage per attack. To this end, Armored, Weaken, and Counter skills will come in handy. Fortifier is a top choice here again, as is Pyro Rig. In this respect, Imperial Purger is very similar to Oluth, which has mostly low Attack cards that can be neutralized by Armor and Weaken. Strategy The battles in this raid are the hardest of any, often producing unwinnable situations such as: * Dealing up to 12 damage by the end of their second turn by playing GDR Infantry, Rallying and Flurrying for 6 damage on the second turn, dealing 2 damage with GDR 5000's Strike, and another 4 damage from EMP or Airstrike. * Opening with GDR Core and two other structures, giving you six turns to deal over 24 Siege damage before GDR Core starts wiping out all your units with its Strike All 4. * Playing GDR Core when all of your Siege cards are at the bottom of your deck. * Playing cards that counter yours; unlike other Raids, Imperial Purger draws upon a fairly versatile card pool. For example, if you open with Armored cards in order to survive GDR Infantry, Imperial Purger may play Sabre, Sawblade, or Tiamat. Still, you can get good win rates (~75%) with appropriate deck construction and manual play. Here is one example deck. This is similar to what one might find in an Oluth deck in relying on Weaken and Armored, though the lack of Mimic allows you to use Activated skills more freely. The chief aspects are the following: * Weaken. Without Weaken, the enemy can deal up to a sickening 6 damage on their second turn using GDR Infantry and the commander's Strike. You also need to factor in two turns of GDR 5000's Strike. Few cards can survive this sort of assault for a single turn, let alone enough to start fighting back effectively. You'll need to look to your commander to counter this opening play. ** Dracorex: The top choice for this Raid. ** Dalia: Better against the opening card; however, Dracorex tends to be better overall as there tends to be a phase of the game where cards pile up. ** Nimbus: More Weaken later on will help you greatly, and Nimbus puts this in a fairly durable package. * Front-Liners. You'll need some cards to hold off the enemy while your heavy-hitters can come online. Try to play one or two of these first. ** Pyro Rig, Fortifier, Bolster Xeno: The best 2-Armor cards, as their Health advantage will help them survive Strikes until healing can come online. Fortifier is great on the offense as well, while Pyro Rig can buy you time with Jam and Immobilize. 2 Armor will make them immune to GDR Infantry's attacks, even if Weaken is cancelled out by Rally. Bolster Xeno is not the most powerful offensive card but is the most durable. ** Toxic Cannon, Anvil, Mech Walker: These only have 3 Health, but can still do good work, particularly Toxic Cannon with its Poison 2. ** Havoc: Leech helps keep this one alive, though GDR Infantry can beat it to activation, at which point it is a coin flip whether you suffer a Flurry. * Healing. Healing is essential on Imperial Purger, as cards with enough firepower to get through enemy Armor while surviving enemy Strike will take a while to activate. ** Aegis: You will probably want two Aegis, in case one gets destroyed--very common due to enemy Strike. ** Poseidon: This is another must-have, providing you with extra healing as well as Siege. * Anti-Armor and Siege. You cannot reliably drain GDR 5000's 25 Health before GDR Core activates, so you need to be able to Siege it out. With Titan/Bolide Walker and Poseidon, you can deal 11 Siege damage before GDR Core activates even starting with zero Siege on the board by playing two of the former followed by Poseidon. ** Havoc: Havoc's Leech will help nullify the effect of Strikes on it, and its Pierce will make short work of Armored units. ** Fortifier: Fortifier deals massive damage to all comers with Flurry and Pierce, while its 2 Armor protects it from most direct attacks. ** Titan: Titan's 8 Health will help it survive until activation, whereupon its Strike and Siege 3 will make short work of Armored Assault cards and Structures alike. ** Bolide Walker: Another Strike and Siege card, a few activations of this Raider card will guarantee you a win. ** Pummeller: This popular combination of Evade, Siege, and high Health and Attack can do good work here. * Action Cards. An Action Card or two can help you out in an emergency. ** Airstrike: Can save you from the dreaded GDR Infantry opening, especially if you are not heavy on Armor. ** Electromagnetic Pulse: The consummate emergency card. ** Pandemic, Mend Wounds: Both of these can help keep your cards alive for a crucial turn. You might even take mostly Uniques: